Conservative South Africa invited Bhuvi-Bumrah choke

London : It was a choke, right? Faf du Plessis insists it wasn’t. He says the team wasn’t playing well enough in the tournament to qualify for the semifinals. He implies that it’s a choke only if the team has been playing very, very well and then goes to pieces under pressure in a crunch game.
But something was amiss, surely — something mental? South Africa contributed to their own demise in the middle of the Oval cricket ground yesterday, allowing India through to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy. It wasn’t merely homicide by the Indian players — South Africa demonstrated a disturbing lack of desire to live. The mind was frail. It brought on an act of physical self-immolation by the team. Physical inertia brought on by mental paralysis. However, this also must be said — the pyre was lit by the very disciplined Indian bowlers and fielders.
Graeme Smith, the former South African captain, spoke with grimness and sadness about his team’s submission. He credited India’s bowlers and fielders, and cited South Africa’s “terrible decision-making” for their collapse.
Bad decisions
“India not only bowled well, they fielded well too,” said Smith. “They were excellent to watch, they looked a team that was ready for it.” And what of his team? “Those were terrible 45 minutes for South Africa,” Smith said of the fall of AB de Villiers, David Miller and Faf du Plessis. From 140/2, South Africa feverishly dug themselves into a deep hole at 157/5, between overs 29th and 34th.
“It was bad decision-making, bad running,” said Smith. “Two crucial run-outs, both getting out at wrong time. It was bad cricket, no one really taking control. So South Africa’s focus moved away from a total they wanted to get to just batting out the 50 overs.”
Smith said that perhaps as little as 10 years ago, India’s fielders could be pushed in the field — but not this bunch, he said.
Things that hurt
India got hurt by Sri Lanka on this very ground three days ago. Virat Kohli had then said that they’d had a “bowling collapse” and that it was best to forget it. But privately, with his team, his words were more brutal. That’s how he fired up India — yesterday, thus, India’s bowling was top-class (and South Africa were too afraid to unsettle it), and India’s fielding was top-class (and South Africa were too tentative to survive it).
“You have to sometimes say things that hurt,” Kohli said when asked what he’d told the team after the loss to Sri Lanka. “That’s what I believe in. You have to lay it out in front of them that this is what we did wrong, including me, and we need to take it on the chin and accept it and prove it.”
He said in a country with a massive population, the men to represent the nation are chosen on this basis — to be able to accept their faults, learn from them, and fight on. “That’s why we are chosen among millions of people to play at this level,” Kohli said. “You have to be good enough to do that for the country and you have to be good enough to bounce back, as well. You can’t do the same mistakes over and over again.”